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What makes one leader attract other leaders and another only followers?

Some leaders attract other leaders who want to not only do what they are doing, but they have the desire to be and to do more.

Then there are other leaders who are comfortable with having followers. These leaders find followers that look up to them and never help develop these individuals to reach their full potential. In contrast, these followers listen to their leader, follow every step and remain average, thus choosing to be a follower rather than becoming their own leader.

If you are a leader that is passionate, leading the charge to change, breaking the path and staying steadfast and true to your dream and vision, you will notice and nurture other leaders emerging from within your team that will do the same.

What about those leader-followers? They too follow their leader and do what is modelled for them.

Sure, you will grow a team, you will earn money, and find fulfilment in your achievements but you will not see the passion and ignite the fire for your team members? Not until you live the passion and ignite your own fire.

You must live it before others will see it and want what you have!

You must lead the change and become a leader with passion, confidence and a belief in yourself, a leader with a self-sacrificing spirit to develop other leaders.

Recognizing this important principle is the first step, in making the change for yourself and your team.

Here is how you can begin to grow leaders rather than leader-followers.

Grow yourself: read a personal development book a week and listen to a productive audio a day.

Love yourself, then others! You cannot love others if you do not take care of yourself.

Be an example of confidence and success, whether you feel like it or not.

Keep a telescope on your goals and your vision for your business. Narrow your goals down to the very core and then eat, sleep and ACT on those goals every day! What is at the heart of what you do? What is your heart’s desire? Go after it with everything within you!

Through this journey you will not only change yourself but you are giving a gift to your team by developing other leaders. You have the ability, now put it into action!

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Earlier this week, I was speaking with author and national business mogul Hasheem Francis about how one can prosper in the real world at a relatively young age. He then referenced his book, Built to Prosper, and stated that we were all born to prosper. With much conviction he said young people fail to prosper because they don’t understand the value of separating themselves from their family and friends. “When you separate yourself, it’s easy to become No. 1 in your field,” he added. To realistically achieve this level of influence you must arm yourself with an achievement plan.

Francis went on to detail a 3-step achievement plan:

Step 1: Understand the significance of separation.

When you isolate yourself form everyone else, you can hear your own thoughts and develop the dreamer within you. The dreamer inside of you is screaming for birth, but it can be suppressed by your social environment. Francis encourages you to stop burying your dreams so they can live. This is extremely important for your overall level of happiness and well-being.

Step 2: Develop a growth plan for your period of separation.

Before you develop a plan you must undergo a process where you will have to isolate yourself from physical and mental distractions. It’s vital that you make an internal commitment to develop a personal growth plan during this process and period of separation.

You should intensely study your craft and conduct a self-assessment so you can calculate your talent and skills. Also, write a journal that includes your vision, mission, purpose, and measureable goals. You can dedicate 10 minutes a day to read 10 pages of a developmental book and listen to an empowerment podcast or video on YouTube for about 15 minutes each day to help you with your goals. Furthermore, you must find a mentor that will be in your corner for you while you’re separated from the pack.

Step 3: Set a 90 day timeline and then evaluate your growth.

Similar to performance reviews that your boss conducts with you at work, after a few months you want to evaluate your progress so you can track your personal growth. This will be a lonely period, but it’s an absolute must that you give yourself at least 90 days to grow. Oftentimes, right when you become lonely is when you will experience the most growth if you’re truly committed to discovering how you can prosper.

Francis closed by emphatically stating that knowledge is the number one asset that young professionals can acquire while they are alone. With this simple 3-step achievement plan you can cut your learning curve down tremendously so you can prosper and become one of the top young professionals in your field.

Antoine Moss, Ph.D., (@2PositiveTweets) is a nationally recognized resource on internships, early career achievement, leadership and motivation. CEO and founder ofCEO Style Consulting L.L.C., Moss empowers professionals and organizations to reach their full potential, and serves as speaker, workshop instructor and consultant. The author of Learn to Intern CEO Style, Moss has been a featured expert on outlets including Fox 8 TV News and George Fraser’s 2011 Power Networking Conference.

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Being an entrepreneur entails more than it may initially seem. It can call for long hours of work and even days with little or hardly any sleep at all. More often than not, this job is also mostly sedentary and with all things considered, it can be inferred that the lifestyle of an entrepreneur may really take a huge toll on your health sooner or later. Sedentary behavior also is known to worsen the health of an individual – it increases the risk of depression, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

With a hectic schedule, it is difficult to schedule time for exercise or properly plan a healthy meal. Moreover, the emotional health of entrepreneurs is counts as much as your physical health and this aspect of one’s health is often times just overlooked.

In other words, entrepreneurs usually take their bodies for granted and treat it terribly in exchange for the possible success that they may attain. This standard of living, however, is not healthy and no matter how much success it may bring about, entrepreneurs should never let go of healthy living.

Do not tie yourself to your Desk

Spending even just an hour outside daily is actually beneficial for the body. Thomas Jefferson utilized this habit. He actually spent most of his time working but he never failed to go and spend at least one hour outside every day. It would not hurt to take a break for even just a few minutes and go outside, get some fresh air, natural vitamin D and exercise.

You literally are what You Eat

Another way of nurturing a healthy life-style is to improve what you eat. Skipping the energy drinks and junk food can be a starting step to improve your diet. Eating food that is bad for the body may have negative effects to your productivity. For example, inflammatory foods such as sugar can cause you to feel inactive and cloud your focus and concentration.

Consequently, you must prepare and consume nutritionally balanced meals. Food should be seen as fuel and if you feed your body with high quality fuel, the likelihood of a better performance will be attained.

Get those Zzzzs

All entrepreneurs have or will have to experience the toil of late nights, early morning errands and last-minute deadlines at some point in their careers. However, these must not hinder entrepreneurs to get the right amount of sleep because lack of sleep can deter thinking and learning and impair attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning and problem solving skills. In short, lack of sleep can really affect productivity. Moreover, lack of sleep can also contribute to serious health problems such as heart failure and diabetes.

Sleeping more is a great benefit to entrepreneurs. That is why it is recommended neither to sleep too short nor sleep too long to maximize productivity levels. Also, a good power nap may also be utilized to recharge your brain and avoid burnout.

Mind of Matter

Being emotionally healthy must be given as much importance as being physically healthy. Even the most intelligent people would not make it in the “real” world if they could not control their emotions toward their work or toward their client. Focusing on the positives is one of the simplest, yet, very effective ways of maintaining an emotionally healthy state because where you put your focus will determine how you will think.

Looking at the bright side of situations can help keep your self-esteem and morale high and this can improve productivity. Being able to forgive those who have wronged you can also be a way to improve your disposition. Forgiving will allow you to move on from the negative circumstances while learning from the situation can protect entrepreneurs from being wronged again by the same people.

Striking a balance between pursuing good health and good business is a must for all entrepreneurs. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can teach valuable lessons about good business. Furthermore, successful entrepreneurs work smarter and not harder.